John P Moore Playwright

Words Words Words
When Polonius asks Hamlet what he reads, Hamlet replies "Words words words". I would give the same answer if asked what I write. Words are important to me, always and everywhere, and my playwrighting is mainly a matter of arranging words in interesting patterns. From the early short plays (MAN was once clocked at 13 minutes) to the full-length dramas like The Lindros Trial, Memphis, and The Emergency Room, my sole focus is putting words on the page that come alive on the stage.
Shorter Plays
Shorter Plays
My first few produced theatre pieces were one-act dramas staged in small theatres in Toronto in the early 1990s: The Possibility of Redemption in a World Full of Suffering, MAN, and Green Wood. These plays were staged in festivals such as the Rhubarb Festival, the Under the Umbrella Festival,  and the Summerworks Festival.
Wonderful Dancer
An amorous boy who grows up straight, a giggly girl who grows up gay, and a night that changes them both.
  • directed by Colin Taylor
  • featuring Martti Arkko and Melinda Little
The Lindros Trial: Extracts from Regina v. Eric Bryan Lindros
Constructed entirely from the transcripts of the trial of a hockey star on assault charges stemming from a dance-floor incident, the play is an examination of the trivial and the profane through the prism of fame.

  • Directed by Sky Gilbert
  • Featuring Frank Zotter, Melinda Little, Naomi Snieckus, D. Garnett Harding, Jake Chalmers, Kathryn Haggis

Memphis: The Death of Martin Luther King
A play about the last days of Martin Luther King, Jr., featuring his heroic and haunting words, Memphis also hearkens back to earlier periods of King's life to trace his remarkable journey.

Directed by Colin Taylor
Featuring Dwayne Morgan, Miranda Edwards, Courtney Cunningham, Tamla Matthews, Kevin White
Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah: a deconstruction of pop love
A exploration of the vision of love and romance suggested by popular music lyrics, with lots and lots of verses and without rose-coloured glasses.

Directed by Margaret Gobie
Featuring Scott Bell, Sarah Carver, Sarah Weatherwax, Colin Grant, Esther Jaciuk, Jaie Laplante, Michaela Mathieu

The Critics Speak

Globe and Mail

"The story of the civil rights leader's commitment to a noble and just cause through pacifism and civil disobedience lends itself to hagiography [Memphis], but Moore thankfully chooses instead to let his subjects words and actions speak for themselves. Moore is more concerned with examining what shaped King than with what he did or why." Ian Morfitt

NOW Magazine

"Moore's plays typically evoke ambivalent feelings--he can make an audience excited or queasy--but his style is distinctively spare and precise. ... The hermetic nature of Moore's world demands from the actors a faith-like reliance on the text . The plays' logic lies within the plays themselves ...". Jill Lawless,

Toronto Star

"Writer John P. Moore seems obsessed with planning and fate, rules and rebellion, opposites that are a natural breeding-ground for tension and drama. These themes are well-illustrated in an acutely observed trio of one-act plays, Wonderful Dancer + 2 ...". Geoff Chapman

CBC Radio

"I'm impressed by the originality of Moore's writing voice, the immediacy of his subject matter, and the fascinating ambiguity of his characters. In short, the guy can write. ... John P. Moore is a playwright who has something important to say and his own unique way of saying it." Richard Ouzounian

Theatrum Magazine

"A surprisingly satisfying triple bill of three short plays [Wonderful Dancer + 2]. Moore's writing, with its running theme of human responsibility, was extremely stageworthy". Sarah B. Hood

CONTACT
jpmooreottawa@yahoo.ca / 613-323-2329

Collaborators

Throughout my work in theatre, I have been blessed with gifted and generous collaborators.

Colin Taylor directed four plays, from one-act to full-length: MAN, Green Wood, Wonderful Dancer, Memphis. His brilliant stagings lifted the poetry from the pages, creating worlds of depth and breadth and characters of flesh and soul.

Sky Gilbert directed The Lindros Trial in 1995 at the Under the Umbrella Festival and again in 1996, when it was independently staged at the Tarragon Theatre. He brought to the production a vivid and irrepressible theatrical imagination, transforming the quotes from the trial transcripts into a madcap journey through the trivial and the profound.